


James Barnes hates everything Clint Barton stands for: a short story.

by Lexiliscious



Series: how the Avengers accidentally become a pack [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky and Tony being civil like adults, Gen, Insomnia, Insomniac!Tony, M/M, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Vents!Clint, sleepy!Bucky, tough sleeper!Steve, werewolf!Bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-14
Updated: 2016-10-14
Packaged: 2018-08-22 08:05:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8278739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lexiliscious/pseuds/Lexiliscious
Summary: Bucky hasn’t been sleeping well the last few weeks—not since he moved into the Avenger’s Tower with Steve. He can hear it when anyone moves in the floors directly above and below theirs. The one directly below them is the common, living area, and there’s usually always someone in there at odd hours of the night, and the one above them belongs to Clint, who, for some reason, Bucky can hear fucking with the vents. At three in the morning, most mornings.	Bucky’s contemplated killing Clint more than a few times.





	

 

                Bucky hasn’t been sleeping well the last few weeks—not since he moved into the Avenger’s Tower with Steve. He can hear it when anyone moves in the floors directly above and below theirs. The one directly below them is the common, living area, and there’s usually always someone in there at odd hours of the night, and the one above them belongs to Clint, who, for some reason, Bucky can hear fucking with the vents. At three in the morning, most mornings.

                Bucky’s contemplated killing Clint more than a few times.

                Steve, of course, sleeps soundly through the night, like the asshole he is. Bucky’s happy to be with him, really, he is. He loves getting to see Steve more days than he doesn’t, he likes getting to talk to JARVIS while Steve’s out on missions, he likes getting a live-feed and having the option to tap into the communicators if he sees something that someone missed, he likes snuggling up to Steve at any chance he gets. He likes a lot of things about living with Steve.

                He just hates trying to sleep with him. When Steve sleeps, he’s out, and nothing short of his alarm or an emergency is going to wake him up again. Bucky’s not sure if Steve can hear all the same things he can, with his hearing enhanced from the serum, but he doubts it. For all that they’re mostly evenly matched, Steve’s senses have always been a little duller than his. Bucky’s incredibly jealous; if he’s on edge enough, he can even start to hear the sounds of the city however-many stories down. It’s awful. Bucky’s tried just about everything to get a good night’s rest; he’s put the pillow over his head, he’s played music from Steve’s stereo, he’s smacked on the ceiling with a broom until Clint crashes from whatever he’s doing and then stops moving. He even tried to smother himself under Steve, once. Steve’s super pliant when he’s asleep, so Bucky had just rolled him over until Steve’s chest was on top of his head—like the pillow, which hadn’t worked—and that was actually a good solution, he could hear Steve’s heart and the blood rushing through his veins and he was already drifting to sleep, and then Steve got cuddly. Like he realized, in his sleep, ‘I’m on top of Bucky right now.’ And turned into an octopus. Steve had shuffled and wriggled until he could hug Bucky to him instead of laying on top of him, and, half awake, carded his fingers through his hair and muttered, “ _Buck_.” In a warm, sleep-happy voice.

                So of course then Bucky had been completely overtaken with emotions, and was helpless to do anything but nuzzle at Steve and make pathetic little emotional werewolf noises until Steve’s alarm went off an hour later.

                He was a fucking wreck.

                It’s 2 o’clock in the morning when Clint starts up again, and Bucky just _can’t_. He hasn’t slept more than a handful of hours in the last week, Steve keeps giving him these sad _looks_ , and the full moon is in two days. He throws the covers off himself with a growl, yanks on a pair of pants and one of Steve’s huge hoodies, yanks the hood over his head, and stalks out of their room toward the elevator, grumbling to himself the whole time.

                “Jar, can you take me to Clint’s floor?” He asks once he’s inside and the door is closed.

                “I’m sorry Mr. Barnes but Mr. Barton said he doesn’t want any visitors to his floor after 11P.M.” Comes the reply. Bucky sighs.

                “I figured. Just down a floor, then. Can you start a pot of coffee in the kitchen for me?”

                “There’s already a fresh pot waiting on the common floor, sir.” The elevator doors ding as they open up to the floor’s living room.

                “Thanks, pal.” He mumbles tiredly, rubbing at his eyes as he heads on autopilot toward the kitchen. He’ll get some coffee, curl up on the couch, hopefully get Jarvis to play him a movie to take his mind off things—while he’s wrapped in his thoughts, he runs head-first into someone. The person grunts, and starts to fall back, but Bucky grabs them before they can hit the floor, righting them with an apology. “Sorry, I wasn’t…” He trails off when he sees that it’s Tony he’s run into.

                There’s a tense moment where they just stare at each other. Bucky can smell acrid fear and anger coming off Tony in waves, and his body is held tight like a spring, and Bucky’s sure he’s about to call his suit to kick his ass, then he says, “What’re you doing here?” In an unkind voice as he picks up his wrench and walks around him.

                “I can’t sleep.” He offers back quietly. He’s too tired to fight with Tony right now. He’ll snap on him. Literally. With his teeth. “Just want some coffee and some peace and quiet.”

                “…uh-huh.” Tony says, unimpressed. The anger has dissipated from his scent a little, but he still smelled like he was scared of him. “Why can’t you sleep?” He asks, as Bucky’s getting his coffee.

                Bucky hesitates. He’s not going to tell Tony he’s a werewolf; not when Tony’s already scared of him, not when they don’t trust each other at all. Bucky wants to make amends, but they’re not there yet. “You know how I got a version of the super soldier serum like Steve?”

                “A HYDRA bastardization, sure,” Tony nods, tinkering with his—robot? Toaster? Robot toaster?—at the dining room table. “Go on.”

                Bucky loads his coffee with cream and sugar and then goes into the living room to curly up on the chair in the corner by the ceiling-to-floor windows. The layout is open—there’s a breakfast bar separating the living room and the kitchen, and a large tiled space off to the right of them both that holds the biggest dining table Bucky’s ever seen, fitted with matching chairs. It’s a huge room, and there’s enough couches and chairs that every Avenger could pass out in here at once, but it’s quiet, so Bucky knows Tony can still hear him even from all the way across the room. “So I can hear it when Clint fucks around with the vents upstairs, and whenever someone comes down here.”

                It’s quiet while Tony tinkers for several minutes, and Bucky sips his coffee sleepily. “Why hasn’t Steve ever complained about it, then?” He asks after a while. Bucky shrugs.

                “Steve’s a heavy sleeper. Once he’s out, he’s out.” Bucky answers. He feels a little better now that he can’t smell Tony as acutely. He’s got nothing against the guy, he just… Doesn’t feel right knowing his emotions when he isn’t broadcasting them himself.

                They lapse into silence again. Tony looks like he’s thinking, so Bucky leaves him to it, staring out the window instead. He breathes in the scent of coffee, turns his head to the side so he can put his nose against the hoodie and breathe in Steve’s smell, too, and if he concentrates hard enough, can hear the man himself breathing softly a floor above them.

                “I can make your floor more soundproof.” Tony tells him eventually. Bucky blinks at him in surprise. He honestly hadn’t been expecting that.

                “You would do that?”

                Tony looks like he’s going to make a smart remark, then just says, “…yeah.”

                “…I would really appreciate it.” He tells him sincerely.

                “I can have it done three days from now, I think. That’s about how long it will take for things to get here. Are you gonna kill Barton before then?”

                “…probably not?” He offers, going for joking. Tony gives him an unimpressed look from across the room that tells him he’s missed it by a mile. “I mean, I wouldn’t. Natasha would kill me.”

                Tony looks at least a little amused by that, one eyebrow raised. “Uh-huh. You’re afraid of Natasha?”

 _Not really_ , Bucky thinks. “Of course. I’d be stupid not to be.” Tony hums his assent and then goes back to his project.

                Around four A.M., Bucky’s done with his third cup of coffee and feels sufficiently awake and relaxed. They haven’t talked anymore since the brief discussion of soundproofing the floor, but it felt exponentially less awkward that it had when Bucky had first run into him in the kitchen. Bucky gets up and stretches, resolving to go back up to his room and maybe wake up Steve to tell him about the interaction, knowing he’ll be proud.

                “Thanks, Tony.” Bucky offers with a small smile in his direction as he heads out, getting a distracted grunt in reply as Tony’s project sparks and buzzes.

**Author's Note:**

> This was really indulgent and wasn't actually part of the story until I realized people put a lot of hate on Tony and I couldn't stand it. I love Tony, guys. If you're looking for a story that gonna make him out to be the bad guy, this ain't it.


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